“We are looking at opportunities to acquire coal mines in Indonesia, Australia, Africa and Mozambique," Jayarama Chalasani, director for business development, told Reuters in an interview on 20 September.

He said competitive pricing would be key to any acquisition and the company was also open to signing long-term contracts with coal producers from these countries.

“If you have to set up a coastal power plant, the landed cost of imported coal is cheaper than local coal," Chalasani said.

“But we cannot pay five star rates to acquire an asset and then try to produce cheaper power."

Chalasani said the company plans to raise Rs480-500 billion ($12-$12.5 billion) in debt over next 7-8 years to expand generation capacity nearly 16 times to 15,000 megawatts.

“It is not the money, but the fuel, which is a constraint for stepping up capacity across the country," he said.